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Catholic Llandeilo - Part 2
A History of St David's Parish
by Alan Randall, 1987
Introduction
The Catholic parish of St. David's, Llandeilo, covers an area of 155 square miles of rural West Wales, the land having a varied and often spectacular scenery. It is divided into two by the fertile valley of the River Tywi. In the south-east the parish is skirted by the Black Mountain and to the north-west the land climbs gradually through a rugged upland area to a 1,300 ft. summit. Here the area is covered by the Brechfa Forest, and is bisected by the Cothi and Dulais valleys and their tributaries.
The parish contains a total population of 9,200 centred on the small market town of Llandeilo, but spread throughout many small villages, hamlets and isolated farmsteads.
The Catholic community of 130 people is relatively small. Though the parish was formally set up in 1973 it contains an area that has witnessed the survival of an almost continuous Catholic tradition dating back to the sixth century and possibly earlier.
St Teilo church, Llandeilo, a classic example of the Catholic/Protestant divide. The 15th century watch tower (all that remains of the medieval church building) is Catholic. The nave is Protestant, built in 1850 after the medieval nave was demolished. The first (Catholic) church was erected on the same site in the 6th century.The name of the parish preserves the link between the present Church and the early Church in the area, and to two of its great saints, David and Teilo.
Saint David or Dewi Sant, Patron Saint of Wales was born about 500 AD. An early "Life", the "Vita Davidas" was written by Rhigyfarch about 1095. Like many such lives it is a mixture of folklore, oral tradition and historical fact. David was the son of a prince of Ceredigion - Sant, and a maiden Non. He was educated at Henfynyw by Paulinus whom David cured of blindness, and later undertook a preaching tour founding churches and monasteries. These include Llanarthne - a 'clas' church or Mother Church in Celtic times and St. Davids. It was at St. Davids that David lived an austere life of daily toil in the fields and long hours of reading, writing, prayer and worship. He died on March 1st, the exact year being unknown.
Teilo was a relative, friend and disciple of St. David. The earliest evidence of his cult is the Gospel Book of Chad written about 700 in Ireland. There are entries in the margin dating from the 9th century that show he was venerated in South Wales as the founder of a monastery, probably at Llandeilo Fawr - the chief church of Teilo. There is a long and elaborate life in the "Liber Landevensis". Teilo was born at Penally near Tenby, and like David studied under Paulinus. He is associated with David and Padarn on a pilgrimage or visit to Jerusalem where he was proclaimed bishop by the Patriarch. Following an outbreak of Yellow Plague in 547 Teilo took his community to Brittany where he stayed seven years and seven months. There are many dedications in Brittany to him, and he is represented in statues and stained glass, wearing a cope and mitre and riding a stag. This is a reminder that Teilo chose a stag as a swift mount when a local ruler in the Cornoville district offered him all the land he could encircle between sunset and sunrise.
It was Llandeilo however that became the centre of Teilo's missionary work, and there are numerous dedications to him in churches, chapels and holy wells in South West Wales. With David he was instrumental in spreading Christianity into Central Wales and the English border.
Teilo died in the middle of the 6th century possibly at Llandeilo. His name is also associated with the See of Llandaff, and his tomb is in Llandaff Cathedral. In Wales his feast is kept on February 9th.
The present St. Teilo's church in Llandeilo was probably built on the site of Teilo's original 'clas'. The Church has been rebuilt several times, most recently in 1850, but still retains its 15th century tower. In the Church are two stone cross heads dating from the 9th to early 10th century. Nearby in a grotto in Church Street, Llandeilo is a well once called St. Teilo's Baptistry and resorted to as a healing well.
The Pre-Reformation Period
The Llandeilo area is replete with ecclesiastical remains from the Norman and Pre Reformation periods, of churches, chapels and holy wells. Most striking of all is Talley Abbey, an ancient abbey standing a few miles north of Llandeilo at Talley or Talyllychau ('at the end of the lakes'). It was described by Giraldus Cambrensis in the 12th century as situated in a "rough and sterile spot surrounded by woods on every side and beyond measure inaccessible and sufficiently meanly endowed". Even today the waters of its lakes and the wooded slopes of its surrounding hills provide an ideal setting for the life of peaceful seclusion which the monks enjoyed.
Talley Abbey was founded by the Lord Rhys - Rhys ap Gruffudd (1132-97), one of the great Welsh princes of Deheubarth. He was a generous benefactor of several other religious foundations including Whitland and Strata Florida abbeys. The founding of the abbey at Talley was probably part of a genuine desire to provide for the spiritual needs of the community under his dominion. Richards, however, has gone further, believing that the gifts made by the Lord Rhys and his descendants to Talley link back to Teilo himself, reflecting the "territory which made up the old parish of Teilo". He thinks there was a close relationship between Teilo and his mother church of Llandeilo Fawr and the Royal Dynasty of Dinefwr. Talley was the "inheritor of much of the spiritualities and temporalities of Teilo himself".
It was the only Premonstratensian monastery in Wales and was based on an Order founded at Prémontré, France, in 1120, adopting the Rule of St. Augustine and the ideals of the Cistercians. Like the Cistercians the Order wore a white habit, also adopted their simplicity of ritual and architecture, and abstained from flesh meats.
Amongst the churches appropriated to the Abbey were the ancient 'clas' of Llandeilo Fawr and the chapelry of St. David at Dinefwr. The Abbey itself was to become thoroughly Welsh in character, many of its monks being Welsh. Though little now remains of the Abbey its once large church included six chapels and a central tower rising to 95 feet. The Abbey was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and St. John the Baptist. A 15th century Talley Abbey seal in the Castle Museum, Norwich, shows a seated abbot, robed and mitred, his hands clasped in prayer. Above him in Gothic characters is written "Ave Maria", and in the upper part of the seal is the Agnus Dei. On either side is a lily, the traditional symbol of Our Lady. The legend reads "S'ABB'TIS CONVENT' MON'STRI B'E MARIE DE TALLEY".
Unlike the Cistercians the White Canons undertook parochial responsibilities though these were often hampered by the Abbey's remote location. In 1410 for example, the abbot and convent complained that the visitors summoned them to places fully eighty miles from the Abbey.
At the Dissolution of the Monasteries from 1536 onwards, there was a religious community of 8 canons, and monastic revenue was assessed at £136. What happened to the Canons is uncertain. Abbot Retheric was given a pension of £24 and James Nicholas migrated to St. Bartholomew's London. Others perhaps entered continental monasteries, became parochial clergy, or became vagrants, It has been suggested too that a monastic tradition continued for many years in the isolation of the hills. The land in close proximity to the Abbey was retained by the Crown, forming the Royal Manor of Talley. The outlying granges were variously disposed of; the estates of Golden Grove and Abermarlais amongst the main beneficiaries.
Reformation and Recusancy
In the early years of the Reformation the Llandeilo area like much of rural Wales had been largely insulated by speech and geographical remoteness from the forces of change coming from England and the English language.
However, in the 25 years following Henry VIII's breach with Rome "changes of a very far-reaching and significant kind were introduced. The authority of the Pope over the Church was shattered, and replaced by the royal supremacy. Some of the most venerated and characteristic institutions of the Medieval Church, the houses of religion, were dispossessed in the greatest act of land nationalisation in British history. Shrines and pilgrimages, the foci of so much popular devotion, were largely swept away".
What is significant and puzzling is that in Wales there was no real widespread rebellion against the changes introduced by the Reformation nor indeed was there any protest at the return to Rome in Mary's reign. It has been argued that the Welsh "had been less deeply committed to the doctrines of the Catholic religion at the end of the middle ages than has often been suggested".
What is clear is that the Catholic Church faced increasing persecution. In 1534 the Act of Succession made it a capital offence to deny the validity of King Henry's marriage. The following year saw the Act of Supremacy making it High Treason to refuse to acknowledge Henry as the only Supreme Head on earth of the Church in England.
By the Act of Uniformity 1559 all were required to attend services in the established church. Recusants were those who absented themselves from such services, and they became liable to various penalties. It was hoped that regular attendance would eventually lead to spiritual conformity.
Surveys in December 1569 and January 1570 suggest that most people in the diocese of St. David's had conformed by then. Bishop Davies reported "no recusancy, neither non attendance at church services nor non reception of communion", existed within his jurisdiction. He did admit that "the retention of Catholic practices was strongly evident". A 1577 survey of the same diocese showed there was one Catholic recusant though some others who attended church "favoured the Roman Church".
These surveys no doubt underestimated the true extent of recusancy at the time in West Wales. But as far as the Llandeilo area was concerned there were no leading families of recusant gentry to provide foci of Catholic opposition to the established Church or who could offer leadership and protect priests. A list of influential 'Catholics' drawn up in 1574 by an adherent of Mary Queen of Scots includes four people from the Llandeilo area - one 'knight', Sir Henry Jones of Abermarlais and three 'gentlemen', Sir Henry's son Thomas, brother Richard and brother-in-law Griffith Rice of Newton (Dinefwr). However, none appear on a similar list for 1582 and it is likely that they had conformed by then three of them becoming High Sheriffs of Carmarthenshire.
It was the seminary priests who were to keep the Faith alive and indeed promote a revival of Catholicism. A seminary at Douay opened in 1568 and began supplying priests to this country in 1574. The Jesuits too launched their own mission in 1580. This led to an intensification of persecution and to the increasingly severe legislative measures of 1581, '85, '87 and '93. There were penalties for saying Mass, harbouring priests, and not attending church, which included fines, forfeiture of goods, imprisonment, torture and the ultimate penalty - death for high treason.
Amongst the seminary priests who worked in and around the Llandeilo area in the late 16th and early 17th centuries was Morgan Clynnog. He trained at the English College in Rome, where his uncle Dr. Morys Clynnog was Rector. He was one of the first to take the Mission Oath in 1579, coming to this country in 1582 with Griffith Ellis. In a letter dated 1587 we learn that "… Mr. Eles, Mr. Morgan Clenocke and others do well and verie much good".
Morgan Clynnog can be traced baptising, reconciling, sending students to Douay and Valladolid and organising the distribution of books from Penlline in Glamorganshire where he lived for some years with Jenkin Turberville. He "worked in cordial co operation with the Jesuits and other secular priests for at least thirty-seven years" and is last heard of on 2nd December 1619.
Another priest known to have worked with Morgan Clynnog at Llandeilo is Phillip Williams or William Phillips. He could possibly be William Phillips of Monmouth, the nephew and pupil of Fr. John Williams. It may be that the Jesuit Fr. John Bennet also served in this area. He was protected by the Barlows at Slebech between 1601 and 1605. He covered most of Menevia travelling "Wales all over, and that for the most part on foot", for 35 years. For several of these Fr. Bennet suffered from the effect of earlier tortures.
An interesting insight into the Catholic underground in this period can be obtained from an investigation into recusancy by Edward Donne Lee and Phillip Williams at the Carmarthen Sessions of August and September 1591. Those questioned were mainly from the Llandeilo area and had been present at Mass or harboured priests.
Both Morgan Clynnog and Phillip Williams (or William Phillips) had said Mass, but little is learned about them from the depositions. On April 10th, 1590 Phillip Williams had stayed with David and Anne Delahay at their house in Llanegwad. Here he said Mass for them, attended by Delahay's miller and an old woman "whome they called nurse". David Delahay was already known to the authorities as a recusant. In 1586 he had been "presented" for not coming to Church or receiving holy communion for four years.
Fr. Phillip Williams then moved on to Llandeilo where he stayed at the house of Jane Lloyd, a widow, from Sunday 12th April, 1590 to the Wednesday. Here he said Mass in the presence of Humfrey Johnes, Jane Lloyd, John Lloyd and Richard ap Hoel. On 15th April he moved to the house of Thomas ap Owen Harry and his wife Gwenllian, where he said Mass for them which was also attended by Owen Harry and Humfrey Johnes.
David Williams, one of the witnesses, who was a son of Jane Lloyd, reported that Morgan Clynnog had also said Mass at his mother's house. Here Morgan Clynnog heard confessions and reconciled several people to the Catholic Church. Amongst those present at Mass he cited David Williams, Jane Lloyd his mother, John Lloyd his brother, Charles Lloyd, his uncle, Hugh Lloyd, his uncle's brother, and Thomas Turberville. We learn from the records however that John Lloyd returned to the Church of England, "being young and not understanding the danger ... did afterwards when he was better informed renounce the Romish Church ... and is heartily sorry for what he did against the law and sheweth it upon his knees with tears".
From the evidence it is clear as to the lengths the faithful were prepared to go to have their children baptised. Anne Delahay gave birth to a son at Jane Lloyd's house in Llandeilo. The child was taken by Gwenllian Evor, a nurse, Hugh Lloyd and a maid to a deserted church some two days journey from Llandeilo, situated between Aberavon and Margam. Here the child was baptised Andrew by Morgan Clynnog "and there were present many thereat ... and this to the number of eight score".
The success of seminary priests like Morgan Clynnog led the Privy Council to comment in 1592 that in the Welsh counties "by means of seminaries there is a daily infection and falling from religion" and led it to instruct the Earl of Pembroke to inquire into "Jesuits and seminaries and such lewd and suspected persons as do lurk in these remote places". The following year he was to complain to the Queen that the inhabitants of West Wales "are in religion generally ill affected, as may appear by their use of pilgrimages, their harbouring of mass priests, their retaining of superstitious ceremonies and the increase of recusants".
A letter from the Privy Council to Sir Thomas Jones and others in June 1592 noted that "there are divers sorts of people in the County of Carmarthen that do use to repair as well in the night season as other times of the day unto certain places where in times past there have been pilgrimages, images or offerings …" He was to take action to "cause those superstitious and idolatrous monuments to be pulled down, broken and quite defaced" and those frequenting such places were to be arrested, "strictly examined and severely punished".
At Llandyfan, a well known as Ffynnon Gwyddfaen was a popular source of pilgrimage. A large number of pilgrims were apprehended there in 1592 and brought before a local magistrate and squire - Morgan Jones of Tregib. A Bill of Complaint was brought against him in the Star Chamber because he refused not only to imprison them but also to examine them. Jones considered their action harmless, viewing them as "poor, sickly persons who had gone to the well to bathe, hoping by the help of God thereby to have their health". Two hundred or more people remained unapprehended at the well, indicating its importance as a source of pilgrimage, a continuity of tradition and the sympathy of a local dignitary towards Catholicism.
A chapel had been erected at the well in Medieval times and survived until the end of the 18th century. It was later used by Baptists, and Soar Chapel was built near there in 1808. The well was believed to possess curative qualities and was described in 1813 by Nicholson as "efficacious in the cure of paralytic affections, numbness and scorbutic humours".
The above evidence and that derived from official returns of recusants suggest a survival of Catholicism in the Llandeilo area, more so than elsewhere in Carmarthenshire. The official returns are not always accurate and have led more than one historian to suggest that the small numbers involved were just "flotsam on a dark tide of papist feeling" amounting to "little more than a haphazard collection of unfortunates". What they do confirm is the absence of any "considerable gentry". The ten recusants from Carmarthenshire convicted in March 1606 were from the Llandeilo area. No gentry were included, but there were four yeomen and a spinster from Llandeilo, two yeomen from Llandyfeisant, a weaver from Llanfihangel Aberbythych and the respective wives of gentlemen from Llandybie and Talley.
The 1624 Return included Thomas David Williams a gentleman from Llangathen; Jane, wife of Rees Williams Esquire; and from Llandeilo - Walter Lloyd "gentleman, aged about forty years, and his wife for the like, whose estate is uncertain, who for a long time hath been a noted recusant and great seducer of the people".
Of 19 Carmarthenshire recusants presented at the Great Sessions in July 1637, 11 were from the Llandeilo area. Once again Walter Lloyd and his wife were included; others were yeomen, husbandmen and their wives, and widows".
The survival of Catholicism in Wales in this period owed much to the missionary work of the Jesuits. In 1622 the Jesuit Mission of St. Francis Xavier was opened at Cwm near Monmouth. Though predominantly serving the Catholic stronghold of Monmouthshire, up to 20 priests were based there on occasions. It is Cleary's view that the Jesuit contribution to the Catholic life of Wales "comprises a surprisingly large, though neglected, effort."
How much, if any, influence the Jesuits had in keeping the faith alive in the Llandeilo area can only be speculated upon. Clearly, there were Catholics in this area who could have been sustained in their Faith by priests from Cwm. We learn from a report written in the 1650's that the Jesuits "underwent great fatigue in traversing the mountainous country to visit the poor Catholics who were unable to maintain a priest amongst them".
It is also known that Saint David Lewis came to Cwm in 1648 and "for thirty-one years he tramped the countryside, always on foot and mostly by night, baptizing, hearing confessions, reconciling lapsed Catholics and saying Mass ...". He was Rector of Cwm 1667-72 and 1674-9.
From 1642 to 1679 a secular priest William Lloyd served at Brecon and may also have been available to the faithful at Llandeilo.
The Religious Census of 1676 shows that there were still Catholics at Llandeilo. Although it records only 14 'papists' for the whole of Carmarthenshire, five of these are at Llandeilo and one at Llandybie. Two years later Titus Oates published his fabricated evidence of a Catholic plot to murder the King and replace him with the Catholic Duke of York. The persecution of Catholics under the Penal Code was usually haphazard and fitful but after the Oates conspiracy there was a massive priest hunt and persecution. It claimed the lives of several martyrs including two Jesuits from Cwm, David Lewis, and Phillip Evans.
Though this persecution aggravated the decline of Catholicism in Wales it still did not wipe it out completely. In 1687 Fr. Pacificus Williams started a Franciscan mission at Abergavenny.
As late as 1700 a priest named Samuel Davies, a gentleman of Llandeilo, was prosecuted at the Great Sessions in Carmarthen for saying Mass at Llandeilo. It was charged that Samuel Davies "now and formerly a popish priest said mass in the mansion of John Morgan of Llandeilo Fawr and administered the sacrament to a certain Mary Lloyd and Mary Price according to the Roman use, against the statute. It is more than likely that this is a Mr. Charles alias Samuel Davies who is identified by Lynch as living with the Jones family at Llanarth from 1707 until his death in 1761 at the age of 84 years. From Llanarth he is recorded as serving the Catholics of South Wales.
How, or if, the spiritual needs of the faithful in Llandeilo were served up to the end of the 18th century and early 19th century is difficult to say. Catholicism certainly appears to have "reached its lowest point in Wales" in the eighteenth century.
In 1704 a return from Carmarthenshire noted "there are about half a dozen papists in the whole county, but these are very inconsiderable". In the following year we learn there were only six priests on the Jesuit Mission. Tennison's Visitation in 1710 recorded that in TaIley "there are two reputed papists John Weston and his wife". Catholics were becoming few and far between. In 1759 one was suspected at TaIley.
Abergavenny had been served from 1687 by the Franciscan Missionaries, and its baptismal records show that Catholics were prepared to travel long distances to secure the services of a priest. In 1769 the baptismal records of Abergavenny show that Thomas and Mary Hughes both servants at Taliaris had their son Thomas baptised there. Godparents were the child's brother, by proxy, and Mary Thomas of Llangathen. Yet two years earlier a return of papists had been called for in St. David's diocese and this had identified only one Catholic in the Llandeilo area - a midwife who lived at Llangathen. Perhaps this was Mary Thomas.
By 1780 one Welsh secular priest had survived. This was Fr. Edward Jones who lived at Llanarth and who was in charge of an area which included Brecon, served by him every three months.
By 1789 Brecon had its own priest, John Williams. From 1817-1818 Lewis Havard worked at Brecon. Poole records that "Like his immediate predecessors in the Catholic mission of S. Wales, he used to strap his vestments and communion plate on his back, and make frequent journeys on foot from Brecknock to Abergavenny, and other neighbouring towns, for the purpose of ministering to a few scattered adherents of his church.
The Jesuits too had continued operating in South Wales. Father Robert Plowden writing on the South Wales mission in 1814 described it as serving the "whole course of South Wales wherever there were Catholics from Cardiff to Milford Haven inclusively". The mission was based at Bristol, the priest crossing by ferry to Cardiff, and from there travelling to Cowbridge by post chaise. This became know as the "Riding Mission" when great distances were covered on horseback and seems to have been operated from 1744 when Fr. Scudamore left Wales. Other priests who served on this Mission included John Baptist de Ia Fontane, Thomas Brewer and his brother John, and Fr. Massie. Fr. Plowden was based at Swansea between 1787 and 1804. In 1811 an appeal was made for funds for a church at Swansea to provide for the spiritual needs of "... Catholics scattered about between Monmouthshire and the extremity of Pembrokeshire". The church was built by 1813 and attended by a priest from Brecon 4 or 5 times a year.
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